Make a guide for public input options on local environment:
from the public for the public.
I want to put together a public guide, perhaps a wiki to air & water permitting, so, for example, people don't get caught with an approved CAFO in their neighborhood. An example is the.Wisconsin DNR's ok public guide to air permitting, but they don't specify a lot of grounds for objecting to a project. Also, Freedom of Information Act will be included, as, for example, the Fish & Wildlife Service releases little information on its findings without a FOIA request. It's complicated, Clean Water Act, accessing EPA & state info, Army COE, the arcane USFWS, archaeology & Native grave preservation, not to mention air standards. And I've noticed that different EPA regions monitor & respond to violations differently. And every state is different, though they all must meet Federal standards. For a beginning, I'm going to work on the process for Wisconsin.
One state at a time is my limit; but I welcome input from others. Probably a wiki is the way to go.
Questions: Too numerous to count.
Reasons:
Too many times, I've been told the period for public comment has passed, a CAFO, pipeline, or mine has already been approved. The permits are often so technical that it's difficult to raise questions. An Army Corps of Engineers official even told me that they, the informed people, needed to assess a proposal, and they didn't, yet, want to hear from the public.
7 Comments
Hi there!
A Public Comment wiki has been started: https://publiclab.org/wiki/public-comment
This is a great topic, and I really would like to see the database here expand on the subject. Best wishes!
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There's also the environmental resources guides page, can these wiki's be combined or synthesized? https://publiclab.org/wiki/enviro-guide-resources
Tulane Environmental Law Guide "My Guide" has much of these topics covered, along with sample letters
GRN's comment page: http://healthygulf.org/our-work/water-wetlands/additional-resources/comment-letters-archive
GRN's open wetlands comment map for NEw ORleans: https://gulfwetlandsmap.carto.com/viz/d36aa682-1d07-11e6-bc20-0ef7f98ade21/public_map
The Scraper project is dormant for now, but if you have money to run this again, i'm all ears: scott.dada.pink
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Can you add a link to the Wisconsin DNR Guide to the Guides wiki?
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You are correct that Things are very different from STate to State, that is the deal with US "Federalist" philosophy of government.
There are national associations that try to describe how things are different. Water law and USACE policy, for example is a mess.
ASWM is drafting a guide to state by state wetland regulations, for example. remind me to post that by end of year?
http://www.aswm.org/
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Thanks for the comments & like(s) @eustatic, @sarasage, & @warren. @eustatic, the Wisconsin public guide to air quality permits is at: http://dnr.wi.gov/files/PDF/pubs/am/AM338.pdf I'll figure out how to add it to the wiki soon.
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Mary, this is great!!! I would love to work with you on it!
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you probably also want to reference https://www.regulations.gov/ which is the federal government's one stop site for reading rule-makings and commenting online.
the https://www.federalregister.gov/ is another great resource and published every business day. It varies greatly but I can usually find things easier in the FR, which also lets you set email alerts by topic, etc. And then once you find the proposal or whatnot, click the link to go to regulations.gov which will have the background docs, comments and various methods to upload your comments.
coincidentally, EPA updated the procedure states need to follow to update permits just recently:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/10/18/2016-24911/revisions-to-public-notice-provisions-in-clean-air-act-permitting-programs
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